Living with Machines: Jewish Ethical Perspectives on AI

Mois Navon is one of the founding engineers of Mobileye, where he designed the EyeQ family of SoC (System On a Chip) - the chip powering the autonomous vehicle revolution. He holds a B.S. degree in computer engineering from UCLA, as well as M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Jewish Philosophy from Bar Ilan University, in addition to his rabbinic ordination through Yeshivat Mercaz Harav. Working at the intersection of Torah U’Madda, his doctoral dissertation, entitled “The Moral Status of Artificial Intelligence,” addresses the ethical questions arising in the field of AI. In this vein, he teaches a course on “Ethics in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence” at Ben Gurion University. He is also a National Advisor to the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology on Artificial Intelligence Policy and Regulation in Israel. 

His work can be found at www.divreinavon.com.

Benjamin Dynkin is the Global Head of AI Assurance for Amazon Web Services, where he works on a variety of issues around AI risk and governance. Previously, he was an Executive Director at Wells Fargo where he led efforts on AI Cybersecurity governance, education, and policy engagement. Ben also led several financial sector efforts around AI, including serving as the founding chair of the FS-ISAC AI Risk Working Group and the founding Chair of the ASC X9 AI Working Group. Ben’s work has appeared in several leading national and international journals, and he has been a regular commentator on television and radio. 

Ben is also the Treasurer of the New York Metropolitan chapter of Infragard, the FBI’s public-private partnership. Ben is a Tech-in-Residence fellow at City College of New York, where he teaches tech and AI ethics and cybersecurity law, he has also taught classes at Hofstra University. Ben also serves as a Contributing Fellow at AI and Faith, where he helps lead the group’s policy and engagement efforts. Ben is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of the Arts and the Economic Club of New York. Ben received his B.A. in Economics from Hofstra University, his J.D. from Cardozo Law School, and his M.St. in AI Ethics from the University of Cambridge.

Rabbi Dr. Harris Bor is an English barrister specializing in commercial litigation and international arbitration, a research fellow at the London School of Jewish Studies in the areas of religion and intellectual history, a commissioner with the AI Faith & Civil Society Commission, a board member of AI and Faith, and author, among other things, of the book Staying Human: A Jewish Theology for the Age of Artificial Intelligence. 

Harris holds a BA from University College London, an LLM in International and Comparative Dispute Resolution from Queen Mary & Westfield, University of London, and a PhD in Jewish Intellectual History from the University of Cambridge, and has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University. He also has semicha from The Judith Lady Montefiore College, London, with Eretz Hemdah.

He can be reached directly or via his Staying Human substack at https://harrisbor.substack.com/. 

Barry Dynkin is an attorney, educator, and researcher working at the intersection of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, law, and technology policy. He is also the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the American Cybersecurity Institute; a leading cybersecurity and cyber warfare policy think tank that has worked with policymakers at all levels of government. 

Barry serves as a Technology in Residence Fellow and adjunct professor at the Grove School of Engineering at the City College of New York where he teaches technology ethics, privacy, and cybersecurity law to undergraduate and graduate students. He is a Contributing Fellow and advisor at AI and Faith. He has published widely in leading academic and professional publications and has spoken widely on topics ranging from the international law of cyber warfare to the ethical obligations of attorneys in the era of AI. He also has served as a director of the ISACA NY Metropolitan Chapter and a legal researcher for the Tallinn Manual on Cyber Warfare 2.0.

Rabbanit Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld is the Chief Learning Officer at Sefaria, an online database and interface for Jewish texts. Sara is a member of Class Six of the Wexner Field Fellowship, and an alumna of the David Hartman Center at the Hartman Institute of North America. Sara also serves as Scholar-in-Residence at Ohev Sholom Congregation in Washington, DC. Her current research and writing focus on the intersection between Jewish ethics and advancements in technology. Sara’s writing has been published in The Atlantic, First Things, and Religion Dispatches, as well as numerous Jewish publications.

Her previous experience includes serving as Director of Education at the Center for Jewish Life - Hillel at Princeton University as part of the OU’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus and serving on faculty at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. She studied Talmud and Jewish Law at many institutions of Jewish learning in Israel and America, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Jewish Studies at Gratz College.

Sara and her husband, Rabbi David Wolkenfeld, live in Washington, DC with their family.

Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman is a Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University, as well as an instructor in the Sy Syms School of Business, and serves as the Executive Editor of the RIETS initiative of YU Press. He is an alumnus of Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh and received his ordination (Yoreh Yoreh and Yadin Yadin) from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, where he was a fellow of the Bella and Harry Wexner Kollel Elyon. 

Rabbi Feldman is the author of numerous seforim including: “The Right and The Good: Halakhah and Human Relations” (Jason Aronson, 1999; expanded edition, Yashar Books, 2005), and “Divine Footsteps: Chesed and the Jewish Soul” (Yeshiva University Press, 2008) as well as three volumes of Talmudic essays entitled Binah BaSefarim, which have been published with the approbations of R. Avraham Schapira, R. Ovadiah Yosef, R. Natan Gestetner, R. Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg, R. Asher Weiss. and others. 

Rabbi Feldman is the co-editor of nine volumes of Talmudic essays and Jewish Thought and serves on the editorial board of Tradition, and has also written for publications such as Jewish Action and the Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Economics He is a frequent lecturer in locations across America and abroad. He is the spiritual leader of Ohr Saadya of Teaneck, NJ, where he resides with his wife, Leah, and their children. Shiurim on YUTorah.org. 

Dr. David Zvi Kalman is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and senior advisor at Sinai and Synapses. He is the host of Belief in the Future, a podcast about religion and technology. He has written extensively about Judaism and AI and holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

He is the owner of Print-O-Craft Press, an independent publishing house that has released books including Jessica Deutsch’s The Illustrated Pirkei Avot and Noam Sienna’s A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1969. 

He blogs at the website Jello Menorah and his work can be found at davidzvi.com. 

Rabbi Dr. Dovid Bashevkin is the director of education for NCSY, the youth movement of the Orthodox Union, and the Clinical Assistant Professor of Jewish Values at the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University, where he teaches courses on public policy, religious crisis, and rabbinic thought. He is also a writer of books and articles and the founder and host of 18forty, a popular media site and podcast.